Venezuelans Wait for Promised Cryptocurrency Donations From AirTM, Air Drop Venezuela

For Venezuelans enduring widespread food shortages and the daily desperation caused by hyperinflation, a months-long wait for hundreds of thousands of dollars in promised humanitarian aid just got a little longer.

The Air Drop Venezuela campaign began with the aim of giving a one-time donation of the equivalent of $10 in cryptocurrencies to as many as 100,000 Venezuelans. But officials with the campaign have told New Times they will delay a disbursement of funds originally scheduled for today, owing chiefly to technical limitations of their system. That marks the fifth delay in ten months.

The Air Drop campaign is managed by AirTM, a digital currency exchange that allows users to quickly swap Venezuelan bolivares for U.S. dollars and cryptocurrencies. So far, the Air Drop Venezuela campaign has drawn more than $300,000 in donations and 70,000 verified Venezuelan users.

Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis has caused a collapse of its health-care system, rampant food shortages, and…